The Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced that a leading German luxury car manufacturer is now shipping its vehicles standard with Toshiba's MK2060GSC 200GB Serial ATA automotive hard disk drives (HDD), marking 26 million automotive-grade HDDs shipped. Toshiba has led innovation in the automotive sector since launching its first automotive-grade HDD in 2000, and is the leading vendor in the automotive storage market.

By 2016, more than 55 million people worldwide will have Internet access built into their vehicles, according to iSuppli Corp. Sophisticated navigation and entertainment systems, smartphone and tablet integration, and Internet connectivity are all features that consumers rely on to enhance their in-car experience, and these systems depend on reliable, shock-resistant HDDs to operate. Toshiba works in partnership with premier automotive manufacturers to provide best-in-class storage devices that can withstand severe road conditions, the growing quantities of data embedded in a vehicle's systems, and users' demands for constant connectivity to stream high-definition movies and update their navigation systems simultaneously.

"Cars are increasingly forming a key part of our connected ecosystem. It is essential they have the capacity to store all the data consumers want and need," said Joel Hagberg, vice president marketing, Toshiba Storage Products Business Unit. "As the automotive industry continues to develop a more integrated and connected driving experience, we will continue to partner with manufacturers to meet their specifications and provide the most innovative and effective storage solutions possible."

Launched two years ago, the MKxx60GSC 2.5-inch SATA-interface series can withstand extreme environments including temperature, shock and altitude variations while still providing seamless performance. Each drive is optimized to handle temperature variations of -22º to +185ºF. With aerodynamic technology in the magnetic head slider, the drive series can withstand altitudes up to 18,536 feet (higher than any city in the world), and withstands up to 3G (29.4m/s²) vibration tolerance during operation.

With 200GB of storage, the MKxx60GSC series is the largest capacity automotive-grade HDD available. The drive's 4,200 RPM speed offers high internal transfer rates of up to 665 Mb/s using an average seek time of 12ms. The drive also offers silent seek operation and uses the minimum amount of power for energy efficiency with no compromise on performance.

Why would I need internet access in my car? So I can drive a car with viruses and a billion toolbars?

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You need internet access for online maps (like google), internet radio and traffic updates.
I yet have to hear of an OEM internet connected ICE unit that lets you "surf" the net while the vehicle is moving. Even the ones that let you tweet do it in such a fashion it doesn't distract you from driving.
Also, pretty much all of the ICE units have custom tailored OS/interfaces that don't allow "a billion toolbars" or viruses.

Why not SSD drives? Yes they cost more but in a car it doesnt make a lot of difference.

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That is what I was thinking because at least the movement from a moving car won't degrade performance or harm the drive. I could only imagine what the SMART logs from a drive with a sudden motion sensor would look like after being in a car for a year (assuming it survives.)

Internet service in a car is just one more distraction (for most drivers), that should not exists. Car makers have exhausted new usable features so they have been resorting to gimmicks for years, much the same as the PC industry with LED cooling fans, windowed PC cases, DRAM top mounted heatsinks and cooling, etc. The clueless line up to buy this crap be it in PCs or cars. There's a sucker bon every second, well quite a few more than one actually...

If these Toshiba drives are as bad as the ones I've seen in the past, they will be useless and broken in 12 months or less.

nternet service in a car is just one more distraction (for most drivers), that should not exists.

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I agree but drivers should be intelligent enough to know that when you have, that is your #1 responsibility. So I call this a non-issue because it's not the internet that is forcing the driver to use it.

in seriousness, its used for GPS and other stuff mainly. i am hoping for a future where cars can get an over the air ECU upgrades

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I don't like this. Think about all the people who have bricked their GPU because of a bad BIOS upgrade because the user didn't leave it alone. It's one thing if you brick your GPU, it's a completely other thing if you brick your car.

Where I agree with internet in a car for things like GPS, OnStar!, and Internet Radio, anything else seems to be a bit too much and only acts as a distraction as Jorge said.